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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27198763">The Date</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c'>sanctum_c</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Aeris and Cloud Take to the Skies Week 2017 [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aerith Gainsborough Lives, Alternate Reality, Autumn, Cetra (Compilation of FFVII), Dating, Drama, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Sex, Memories, Not Before Crisis (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Compilation of Final Fantasy VII Compliant, Not Crisis Core (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Dirge of Cerberus (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Final Fantasy VII Remake Compliant, POV Aerith Gainsborough, POV Cloud Strife, POV Multiple, Post-Canon, Post-Final Fantasy VII, Reality Bending, Recovered Memories, Resurrection, Sad Ending, Tragic Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2017-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2017-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:16:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,354</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27198763</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Aeris clung tighter to Cloud's arm, her warmth contrasting with the chill breeze. The wind tossed dead leaves along the sidewalk and brought with it a faint scent of wood-smoke. Cloud smiled and shifted his arm around Aeris's waist and pulled her closer. The sun was not far off the horizon now, the sky shifting from blue to an increasingly deep red. The fallen leaves crunched underfoot as they headed- Cloud blinked. Where were they going? "I always like this time of year," Aeris murmured.</i>
</p><hr/><p>Aeris and Cloud go for a walk in the Autumn and everything is absolutely fine.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Aeris and Cloud Take to the Skies Week 2017 [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985575</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Date</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the prompt 'Autumn'</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aeris clung tighter to Cloud's arm, her warmth contrasting with the chill breeze. The wind tossed dead leaves along the sidewalk and brought with it a faint scent of wood-smoke. Cloud smiled and shifted his arm around Aeris's waist and pulled her closer. The sun was not far off the horizon now, the sky shifting from blue to an increasingly deep red. The fallen leaves crunched underfoot as they headed- Cloud blinked. Where were they going? "I always like this time of year," Aeris murmured.</p><p>"The Autumn?" Cloud blinked, suddenly a little light-headed. He was forgetting something. Something on the tip of his tongue. Something important.</p><p>"Yes. Summer's too hot, Winter's too cold. But Fall?" She grinned at him, pressing herself against him. "Is pretty much perfect. Plus it's a great excuse to get closer to you." Aeris leant her head against his chest.</p><p>The worry faded but did not vanish entirely. "So what do you-" He cut himself off. There. That same sensation of an absence. Of something missing, something he should know but did not.</p><p>"-want to do now?" Aeris completed his question. "Not up to me. This is your date so we can do whatever you want. Go to the movies, go out for dinner..." She trailed off, glanced around and lowered her voice. "Or just head home and see what happens there?"</p><p>His cheeks heated up at the implication. Home. Bed. The two of them alone. Skin against skin. But why had she checked for witnesses? There was no one visible in the growing twilight. Darkness had already engulfed the distant ends of the street as night fell. It would get brighter when the streetlights lit up. Strange they weren't. A new wave of dizziness; there were no streetlights here. But now a soft white light offset the darkness; the trees were glowing. Like the ones-</p><p>A rush of vertigo washed across Cloud followed closely by a lurch in his stomach as if he was in free-fall. His arms felt fuzzy, like he was dissolving, dispersing. Absurd. He was here with Aeris. Focus on the date. Date? The moment they stopped in the play-park? No, that was not a date. The date should be somewhere else. The Gold Saucer was a perfect location; Aeris had made the right choice. And it wasn't like they could go anywhere until- "We should avoid Cait Sith," Cloud blurted his head swimming.</p><p>Bad idea; Aeris's smile faded and that sense of falling, of dispersing came again. Why had he brought up the robot Reeve controlled like that? Wait, he only learned about the man behind the cat- "We can't go to the Gold Saucer. Not today," Aeris said firmly, derailing his train of thought. "Maybe it would be best if we just went home."</p><p>"Home-" Mom's house on fire. The Seventh Heaven in Edge. A grey room with nothing but the cot he fitfully slept on. His chest clogged each morning, each cough sending splintering pain right through him as his lungs wheezed and he gasped for air. His vision faded and blurred, the world around him turned vague. The ache in his joints like when  he struggled to his feet. Alone. No one in the house. Everyone else was gone. Long gone. Except for- "Nanaki was going to visit me. And Vincent might be there-"</p><p>"Not today. Today it's just us. At. Home." Aeris's fingers dug into his arm, the pain barely registering against the grating scream of his joints. "Look. It's right there." She pointed across the street.</p><p>Cloud's head swam again, the world threatening to slide out from under him. Where had he and Aeris been and where were they going if home was right there? He gazed in the direction she indicated with difficulty, the world wobbling dangerously. An unfamiliar building across the street. A single-story cottage with a green wooden door, dark stone walls, a thatched roof and leaded windows. Beneath the windows flowerbeds burst with colour and a long, green lawn stretched to the white fence encircling the garden. Where was that building from? Not from Edge. Not Midgar either; the sky was clear, and they weren't on a plate or anything like that. Were they? No. Flowers could not grow easily or perhaps at all within the city. "That's not home."</p><p>Aeris muttered something under her breath. The world wavered and now a larger house sat on the other side of the road. Aeris's, or rather, Elmyra's house. The one in the Sector Five slums; as incongruous to its surroundings as it always had been. Too nice for the slums, ideal for Aeris and Elmyra. But Elmyra didn't live there anymore. No one lived in Sector Five. No one lived in Midgar. How was it here? "I don't feel well," Cloud muttered. His legs were like jelly, barely able to support his weight.</p><p>He sagged and Aeris hung onto him, supporting his weight, trying to keep him on his feet. "You're tired. Let's get you sat down and we'll take a break."</p><p>Cloud nodded, relieved to achieve some measure of rest. He turned to her to thank her- She was wearing pink. Pink dress, red bolero jacket, those brown boots. A pink ribbon in her hair and a black one at her throat. She wore the same clothes as she always had since he met her. Aeris looked the same as his dream of her when she left for the City of the Ancients. After the Temple. After he handed the black materia to Sephiroth. Before the city. Before- His throat was tight and he gulped painfully, his breath now catching in his throat. "Aeris-"</p><p>"Cloud," she said in a calm, firm voice. Something else too; a hint of worry behind her words. "Please. Don't think-"</p><p>"You-"</p><p>"Cloud." Her voice wavered.</p><p>"You died."</p><p>Aeris sagged and let out a strangled sob, her eyes glassy with tears. "I hoped this would work." Her body was stiff beside him. "I just wanted to see what it would be like." Cloud's leg gave way beneath him, the pain flaring up and then- The pain receded. Cloud fell, unable to do anything but stare up at her as she grew more and more distraught, more distant somehow. Cloud opened his mouth but nothing came out, his lungs empty. A faint whispering grew louder and louder, the noise near painful as the world tinted green. "Sorry. I just wanted to repay you. But-" He tried to reach for her, the pain in his arms now gone but his arm would not move. Aeris grew dimmer, the street, the sky, the crunch of the leaves all gone. "I'm sorry, Cloud," Aeris said somewhere beyond the edge of the world, only the faintest echoes of her words audible. And then she was gone.</p>
<hr/><p>The swirl of Lifestream that was as much of Cloud Strife as Aeris could find dissipated back into the collective mass. Aeris sank to her knees, forcing the street to hold together for a few more moments. She had not been able to draw enough of him back even after so much searching. There had been too many holes in Cloud's memory and too many awkward details she could not work around based on what he did and did not remember. So much effort and so much time to collect even those scraps of Cloud. To put him back into something approaching coherence. All lost and scattered again.</p><p>Could she work up the effort to try again? Perhaps, but the more time passed, the harder it became to find Clouid as he became ever more diluted across the entirety of the Lifestream. Perhaps it would be best to now let him rest; better to anticipate Cloud's rebirth in whole or part as was the intended cycle of life. She had her own memories still. They were all she had left, detached and separate from everything. Perhaps that would be enough. Perhaps not. The street dissolved and the last Cetra, still watching over the world, idly picked at a thread of consciousness, at what had once been a man named Cloud Strife.</p>
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